Door Drama: To Hold or Not To Hold?

What’s up with doors and the drama surrounding them? There’s always that moment of hesitation when leaving or entering a building – who goes first?

It’s simple – if you’re on the handle side of the door it’s up to you to open it and allow a person to enter or exit. If you’re the one entering and the door opens out, you have the handle so it’s up to you to let the person exit before you enter.

But, it doesn’t work like that. Gender can muddy the situation. Should a man hold the door for a woman? I, Yvette, believe a man should always hold the door for a woman. The woman should be grateful and say so. I’ve noticed that oftentimes women go on mute when men step aside to let them enter a building first or get on a bus or train. Yvonne’s more flexible because she finds that sometimes a man’s chivalry causes door jam. If she gets to the door first, she’s opening the door. However, she thinks it’s charming that men in Italy enter a restaurant first. It was explained to her that the man should check out the place and make sure it’s safe for the woman.

Revolving doors are tricky. The belief is that since these doors can be heavy, the man should go first. We agree, but Yvonne asks, "What if you’re with another woman? Should the bigger of the two do the work?" The same goes for which of two women should enter first, is it age before beauty or diamonds before pearls?

We feel for the poor man who holds the door for one prospective shopper and the next thing he’s holding the door for most of the mall population. They don’t say thank you because they don’t see him. He’s been anointed as The Invisible Doorman.

My number one pet peeve is the door slammers. Someone has been considerate enough to hold the door open for them, yet they walk through, hands free not caring about the person behind them.

Apparently, one person’s open door policy is another’s closed door policy.